Saturday, 1 November 2014

German Pilsner in 2014

For the second part of my modern German beer style series, we'll be looking at Germany favourite: Pilsner.

Though its popularity is definitely on the slide, down from almost 70% of sales in 1996 to 55% in 2010*. Though there's currently no obvious replacement nor even a vague challenger. No other style had a market share of more than 10% in 2010**.

It's often assumed that after Pilsner was first brewed in 1842 that it spread like wildfire across Europe. It didn't. Its progress was much slower and it's only really in the 1880's that it starts to be brewed in any quantities outside Austria. Even then it remained an expensive speciality, mostly drunk by the middle classes. As you can see, there are considerable parallels with Burton Pale Ale.

Pilsner's progress wasn't helped by the fact that the Munich breweries and Dreher from Vienna got in first. Münchner and Viener were the first Lagers to be brewed in most countries. The earliest analyses I have of a German Pilsner is from 1878. Intriguingly, they're all from the Saxon town of Chemnitz and are described as "Bömischer Art" or "Bohemian style".

Only one analysis is from the south, from Munich's Löwenbräu. Which makes sense. They had their own Lager tradition in Bavaria and were more reluctant than brewers from the north in adopting foreign styles. Munich brewers in particular were afraid of debasing their dark Lager brand if they brewed pale beers. Eventually they were unable to resist public demand and in the 1890's all the big Munich breweries introduced one.

What I find most remarkable is how similar all the sets are to one another. The average gravity of the 19th-century Czech and modern German examples is identical. Though the average gravity of the 19th-century German samples is half a degree Plato higher. Unsurprisingly, there's one big difference: the level of attenuation. It's 80% in the modern examples and below 75% in the older examples. For the 19h century, anything over 70% attenuation is quite high. Whereas in most modern German Lagers it's over 80%.

The modern Pilsners show less variation than the older ones. The gravity range is 9.96 to 13.51º Plato (3.55º difference) for 19th-century Czech Pilsners, 10.91 to 14.19º Plato (4.28º difference) in old German ones, 11.20 to 13.00º Plato (2.8º difference) in modern German ones. 23 of the 42 modern examples are 0.2º Plato either side of the average of 11.8º Plato (11.4º to 12º Plato) and 31 are 0.4º Plato either side of the average. That's 55% and 74%, respectively.

It's a shame that I've so few EBU bitterness values. They aren't enough to do anything sensible with.

Time for one final table. Of a modern phenomenon: Leicht Pils.

German Leicht Pils in 2014

Brewer

Town

Beer

OG

FG

OG Plato

ABV

App. Atten-uation

bitterness

Zum Löwenbräu
Flair Hotel

Adelsdorf

Leichtes

1030.8

1009.2

7.8

2.80

70.15%

Distelhäuser

Tauberbischofsheim

Leichtes

1030.8

1008.4

7.8

2.90

72.75%

18

Ammerndorfer
Bier Dorn Bräu

Ammerndorf

Leicht

1030.8

1008.4

7.8

2.90

72.75%

Püls-bräu

Stadtsteinach

Weismainer Feinherb

1031.2

1008.8

7.9

2.90

71.82%

Gasthof
Gundel

Kammerstein

Nimm's leicht

1031.2

1008.8

7.9

2.90

71.82%

Pyraser
Landbrauerei

Thalmässing

Das leichte Pyraser

1038.2

1009.7

9.6

3.70

74.61%

Average

1032.2

1008.9

8.1

3.0

72.32%

18.0

Sources:

Brewery websites.

They're all very similar to each other except the Pyraser, which looks like an Ordinary Bitter. The others all fall into the old Schankbier category, being under 8º Plato. While the Pyraser is slap in the middle of the old "forbidden zone" of 8º - 11º Plato. It's remarkable how few beers are brewed even now at the old forbidden gravities. I guess old habits die hard.